Setting up an e-commerce store can be tricky if you don’t know which metrics to focus on. Most online merchants concentrate too much on driving traffic to their website by investing in social media ads, influencer campaigns, and SEO.
However, the real challenge in running an e-commerce store is identifying how many customers complete the action you intended them to meet in the first place. Whether through newsletter sign-ups or purchases, focusing on your conversion rate is essential in producing more sales and boosting business growth.
What exactly is a conversion rate?
A conversion rate is the percentage of people who visit your e-commerce store and accomplish the intended action based on any of your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). For example, if 100 people visited your store but only 10 people made a purchase, your conversion rate would be 10%.
The usual conversion for most e-commerce websites consists of generating a sale, adding items to wish lists or carts, social media shares, email sign-ups, and any other KPI you consider appropriate.
Why Conversion Rate Is Important For E-commerce
Conversion strategies are crucial for every e-commerce business, especially when considering the sales conversion rate of an online store. Globally, the average e-commerce conversion rate is just 4.31 percent. This means that for every 100 people who visit your online store, only about 4 of them will buy anything.
No matter how much money you invest in driving users to your store, it won’t really matter unless those visitors are converted into customers. That’s why it is crucial to understand what affects this metric and how to optimize it.
Conversion rate optimization (CRO) techniques help online businesses maximize their website traffic, resulting in more sales and, ultimately, more profit.
How to Boost Your Conversion Rate
CRO is crucial since it enables you to extract more value from your consumers or visitors while lowering customer acquisition costs. You’ll be able to raise revenue per user or visitor, attract more clients, and expand your business in this manner.
Businesses will need to emphasize tools and techniques used by marketers to optimize their metrics. Here are a few things you can do to boost your e-commerce conversion rates:
Write and Create Quality Content
One way to improve your e-commerce conversion rate is to produce quality content. This will help you attract visitors to your website and keep them there for extended periods of time. Make sure your content addresses all of the essentials, but stay away from lengthy descriptions, which will turn readers off – especially if they’re on a mobile device.
High-quality content also helps you build trust with potential customers, further increasing your conversion rates.
In addition, you can also use content marketing techniques like Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to improve your website’s search engine rankings. This will help you get more visitors from the search engines, boosting your conversion rates.
Optimize the Website for Mobile Devices
It’s no secret that mobile devices are now the primary way people access the Internet. In fact, 72 percent of shoppers do their research online before shopping in stores. This means that if your website is not optimized for mobile devices, you are missing out on a large number of potential customers.
Use responsive design to make sure your website looks good on all devices and ensure all the essential information is easy to find. Your online store should be as easy to access on a mobile device as it is on a desktop. This will prevent mobile users from becoming dissatisfied with your website and abandoning it before converting.
You can use a tool like Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to check if your website is mobile-friendly. If it’s not, it might be best to make some changes. Google also offers AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages), which makes your website load faster on mobile devices.
Build Trust by Demonstrating Safety
When customers feel safe about providing their personal and financial information, they are more likely to complete a purchase. This can be done in various ways, but one of the best methods is to use a quality security seal. Trust seals show that a third party has verified your site and that your customers’ information will be safe.
You can also improve trust by displaying positive customer reviews and testimonials on your site. Potential customers will be more likely to convert if they feel that others have had a good experience with your business.
Simplify the Checkout Process
The checkout process is one of the most critical aspects of an e-commerce website. If it is too complicated, customers will abandon their purchase. Studies have shown that the average shopping cart abandonment rate is 69.80 percent, which means that more than two-thirds of shoppers leave without completing a purchase.
One of the best ways to increase your conversion rate is to optimize your checkout process. The more steps a customer takes, the less likely they are to complete the purchase. Keep the checkout process as short and straightforward as possible.
There are several ways to simplify the checkout process. One way is to reduce the number of steps required to complete a purchase. Make sure the page is easy to navigate and that the customer can complete the purchase in a few clicks. Include all necessary information on the page, such as shipping address, payment information, and other required fields.
Another way is to make it easy for customers to enter their payment information. People who shop online need a variety of payment methods. There are several methods for paying for goods and services, and your website should allow consumers to use the most popular choices. Stripe, Venmo, and Google Pay are a few popular payment options.
Consistent A/B Testing (Split Testing)
Testing different versions of your website is a great way to determine which design, layout, or copy results in more sales. You can test anything from the color of a button to the wording on a page.
A/B testing is essential for any e-commerce marketing strategy and should be done regularly. Suppose you’re consistently testing the performance of your e-commerce website and how it converts customers. In that case, you can apply your data and findings to build new business strategies and take your conversions to the next level. Split testing is definitely the 80/20 in CRO, so this step is super important.
Start Optimizing Your Conversion Rates
Implementing the necessary tools to measure and analyze your efforts is only the first step in optimizing conversion rates. Converting site visitors to customers entails providing an experience that no other e-commerce store can match – and that means keeping updated on the latest e-commerce and customer experience trends to stay ahead of the competition.
It’s more important than ever for businesses to stay engaged with their customers throughout their entire customer journey.
You can achieve this by working with a full-service CRO agency like SplitTesting.com, which ensures the best results for online businesses. We utilize user testing, data analysis, and AI-driven software to convert your website visitors into paying, committed customers.
